The chief of the Kennebecasis Regional Police Force (KRPF) says he believes their biggest accomplishment from 2020 was responding to the pandemic.
In a year-end interview, Wayne Gallant said they, like most organizations, were not well prepared to deal with a global health emergency.
But Gallant said the way his force and its employees have responded to the pandemic has been exceptional.
“They showed great flexibility in making adjustments to how we work in very quick and short notice,” said Gallant.
Gallant said they made significant changes to scheduling to try and keep employee interaction down and reduce any risks.
He said they also had to adjust the way they interacted with the public to keep both officers and the community safe.
“It provides some unique challenges when you’re carrying out police work when you have to interview people or you have to interact with people. You have to take people into custody sometimes,” said Gallant. “We had to come up with safe work procedures that enabled our officers to do their work safely.”
The chief noted they have done a lot of COVID education in the community and have not had to take enforcement action on too many issues.
Sexual Violence Investigation Pilot Project
This past year also saw the launch of a pilot project at the Kennebecasis Regional Police Force with a goal of improving sexual violence investigations.
Each quarter, a seven-person review team made up of community advocates looks at all sexual violence files which are not referred for charges.
According to Gallant, KRPF is the first police force in Atlantic Canada to introduce a program of this nature.
“We think it’s a really positive development, a really sort of community-based approach to dealing with sexual assault files and hopefully improved results and an improved response from the justice system, and in particular police to sexual assault victims.”
The review team looked at its first cases in October and November, and Gallant said the process went really well.
“The program is expanding now to other police forces across Atlantic Canada so you’ll see other advocate-type organizations becoming involved and receiving the training that’s required to undertake those reviews,” he said.
Jeff Porter Controversy
2020 also saw several new developments in the arbitration matter involving a now-retired inspector accused of inappropriate conduct involving a female civilian employee.
Insp. Jeff Porter was suspended with pay in June of 2016 after the employee filed a written conduct complaint against him with the force.
An investigative report presented to the New Brunswick Police Commission in June 2018 identified 16 specific allegations of misconduct by Porter.
But the arbitration process was terminated on Dec. 31 after Porter officially retired from the force. Under the Police Act, Under the Police Act, the New Brunswick Police Commission no longer has authority over an officer once they are no longer employed by a force.
Gallant said the matter has been a “lengthy and difficult” process for everyone on the force and an “unpleasant distraction.”
He said they have taken several steps to improve the working environment and culture of the organization.
“We’ve spent a lot of time and effort collectively as an organization improving our employee supports, respectful workplace programs, our human resource programs, the way we train people, the way we promote people, the way we hire people,” said Gallant.
Gallant said they are looking forward to the years ahead in hopes they will not have to talk about the matter as much.
Looking Ahead To 2021
Looking ahead to 2021, Gallant said the force plans to remain focused on several continuing priorities.
He said youth is one of those priorities, adding they have taken a focus on diverting them away from the criminal justice system so they do not become unnecessarily criminalized at a young age.
“Diversion within the criminal justice system has always been an option, but we’re making efforts right now through evidence-based screening tools and things like that that our community policing officer is using to divert youth away from the criminal justice system,” said Gallant.
Gallant said they also want to continue building in traffic safety, which he said is important in the Kennebecasis Valley.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police awarded the force with the National Police Award for Traffic Safety in September.
